Forming Young Disciples

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Are we asking the right questions?

• Forming Young Disciples

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Humbly submitted for our consideration

• Has our default preoccupation with conventional
  religious education blinded us to more profound
  deficits in our ecclesial life that too often
  render our catechetical efforts impotent?

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Why are Catholic Youth Doing Poorly?

• Catholic upward mobility and mainstream
  acculturation undermines the vitality of the
  Church.
• Catholic school and CCD no longer effectively
  serve as primary vehicles for education,
  formation, and ministry.

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Why are Catholic Youth Doing Poorly?

• Youth evangelization and formation are a low
  institutional priority at the parish and diocesan
  level.
• Catholic teenagers significantly reflect the
  relative religious laxity of their parents.

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• No previous generation of American Catholics
  inherited so little of the content and
  sensibility of the faith from their parents, as
  have todays Catholic youth.
• Church historian R. Scott Appleby
• Notre Dame University

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• The challenge of Catholic education and
  formation in our media-driven, cyberspace age is
  no less than this older Catholics must be
  restored to, and younger Catholics introduced to,
  a sense of Catholicism as a comprehensive way of
  life.

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with the Church of today

• Comparing the Church of the 1950s

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The Church of the 1950s

• Families were solid, extended and still
  ethnically Catholic.
• Neighborhoods were homogeneous.
• Public schools reinforced Christian values.
• The media reinforced Christian values.
• The local parish was the center of a Catholics
  life.

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The Church of the 1950s

• .

Religious Education was responsible for imparting
a cognitive value system religious tradition
that literally permeated the rest of ones life.
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The Church of 2000

• Families have changed dramatically, leading to a
  breakdown in the transmission of core beliefs and
  values.
• Neighborhoods are no longer homogeneous.
• Public schools must disassociate themselves from
  prayer and expressions of faith.
• The media powerfully portray an array of values
  and beliefs that may be contrary to Christian
  ones.
• The local parish is now optional for many
  (most?).

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Youth Ministry Religious Education are now
responsible for accomplishing what used to be
done by no fewer than six societal institutions!
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The Church of 2000

• We can no longer assume...
• That youth (or their parents) know and live their
  faith
• That faith / church / religion / parishes are
  viewed as relevant or significant
• That parents rear their children in the faith and
  religion at home
• What else???

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Parents

• Parents above others are obliged to form their
  children in the faith and practice of the
  Christian life by word and example.
• Code of Canon Law
• Parents are the most influential agents of
  catechesis for their children.
• NDC

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• The single most important influence on the
  religious and spiritual lives of adolescents is
  their parents. (Soul Searching, p. 261)

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Parents and other adults will most likely get
what they are. (Soul Searching, p. 261)
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Parents Are Job 1!

• 100 parish presentations and going strong
• To parents, pastors, parish staffs, deaneries,
  elementary school faculties, religious communities

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Two new acronyms

• NMBAU
• WWIBLI

No More Business as Usual!
What Would It Be Like If
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Questions for Our Consideration
1. How can we make parent preparation for
Catholic child-rearing our highest priority, with
the necessary commitment of energy, resources,
and talent?
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6. How can we significantly increase the number
of full-time parish youth ministers who
understand their mission to be restoring
Catholicism as a comprehensive way of life
whose primary job it is to catalyze our faith
communities around the goals of youth ministry,
not lead a youth group?
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Re-Imagining Youth Ministry
Youth Ministry IS a strategy for restoring
Catholicism as a comprehensive way of life for
young people, their parents and
families through a network of cooperative
activity in schools, parishes, families and the
civic community in pursuit of three goals and
eight components

• Youth Ministry ? youth group

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2. How can we ensure that our Catholic worship
especially Sunday Mass is vibrant, welcoming
and inclusive of parents and youth, particularly
by developing in them proper dispositions?
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3. How can we make significant strides towards
broad-based parish renewal and revitalization, so
parishes serve as the authentic and faith-filled
contexts for adolescent faith formation?
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4. How can we partner with Catholic leaders of
athletics and other extra-curriculars so as to
help them mentor our children in our Catholic
faith?
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• 5. What will it take for us to maximize our use
  of electronic communications, social networking
  and virtual online communities as a means for
  discipleship, participation and growth?

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6. How can we significantly increase the number
of full-time parish youth ministers who
understand their mission to be restoring
Catholicism as a comprehensive way of life
whose primary job it is to catalyze our faith
communities around the goals of youth ministry,
not lead a youth group?
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Re-Imagining Youth Ministry
Youth Ministry IS a strategy for restoring
Catholicism as a comprehensive way of life for
young people, their parents and
families through a network of cooperative
activity in schools, parishes, families and the
civic community in pursuit of three goals and
eight components

• Youth Ministry ? youth group

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7. What will it take for our Catholic schools,
especially our Catholic secondary schools, to
better partner with parishes in developing young
disciples?
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8. Who else should be seated around these tables
with us? Who else must we collaborate with back
at home, if we are to make any real and
significant headway?
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9. What will we need to let go of to allow
sufficient resources, imagination and creativity
to be unleashed so something new can emerge?
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• For your individual reflection
• How do we need to think differently
• About adolescent faith formation and youth
  ministry?
• About our need for collaboration?
• About ourselves as diocesan leaders and
  collaborating members?
• What do we need to learn, develop, grow into,
  or let go of?
• What do we need, or need to do, to respond to
  the challenges we face?